A Wisconsin Whirlwind

I lived in the midwest for a good number of years with said years being split between Illinois and Wisconsin.  I enjoy the midwest; I also don't enjoy the midwest.  Truth be told, the weather is what gets me every time and when I graduated from college in a record setting cold year, I got the heck out as soon as I could.  But I do like to visit every once in a while so when my cousins wedding came up we booked our flights and headed "home".  Again.  Because we were just there last month for the Packer game.

We took a late flight on Thursday night to Chicago and chased the setting sun the whole way...

Those clouds!

The wedding was not until 4 pm on Friday so we had some time to kill.  Being as we were only about 30 miles from my alma mater (and where Dad went to school for his first year of college) we hopped in the car and drove over to see how it had changed (or stayed the same) over the past 25 years.

Our scenery the WHOLE way!

Whitewater is a small town (only about 14,000 people live there full time with most of them being employed by the school) and a small college with a big college feel and gorgeous campus.  I absolutely loved my time there and being there brought back a lot of wonderful memories.  And MadHatter loved it so much she said that this is where she wants to go to school too (check back with me in 6 years and we will see how that stands up).

Wellers Hall.  My dorm for the first two years.  Yep, all students have to live on campus for the first two years.

The backside of the dorm.  My room was on the first floor right next to the door.  More times than I can count, I was woken up in the middle of the night by friends wanting to be let in because the door locks at 11 pm and then you have to go all the way around to the front and walk all the way back.

The Quad.  Much bigger now than when I was there.

The oldest building on campus - Hyer Hall.  It is the only link to the original building that was the college when it first opened. 

I spent more hours here than anywhere else on campus.  Stop laughing.  Nope, I didn't study here, I worked here for 3 1/2 years.

The house I lived in for the last 18 months.  Good times were had here!

I told you it was a small town.  This is Main Street.  We do have stoplights - but only 3 - and that is one more than was there when I lived in town.

Our way home.  It looks a lot like our way there.

And then it was time to get ready for the wedding.  We had just enough time to get everyone showered, changed and across the street to the wedding venue.  Again, small town Wisconsin where nothing is farther than a few feet away.  It was a pretty ceremony, and thankfully the snow held off until 2 days after we left because it was outdoors.  You take that chance when you live in the Midwest.  I didn't take many pictures as I was just catching up with family and enjoying the time we had.  But I did manage to catch a few...

And suddenly it was Saturday morning and we were on our way back to the airport so we could catch our flight home.  But not before we stopped and got the best Cheese Curds ever...

They squeaked so loud (and only those who know will know).

Fun Fact:  Because raw cheese is illegal in the US you can only find fresh cheese curds in Wisconsin as they have a by on that law for curds.  Now, you can find them elsewhere but be warned, they have been aged for 60 days to make them legal and will not have the same flavor, nor will they still have their squeak.